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Molehill   Listen
noun
Molehill  n.  A little hillock of earth thrown up by moles working under ground; hence, a very small hill, or an insignificant obstacle or difficulty; as, to make a mountain out of a molehill. "Having leapt over such mountains, lie down before a molehill."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Molehill" Quotes from Famous Books



... more abrupt because they are more invisible; they cast no shadow before, they have no atmosphere. No one ever had a mystical premonition that he was going to tumble over a hassock. William III. died by falling over a molehill; I do not suppose that with all his varied abilities he could have managed to fall over a mountain. But when all this is allowed for, I repeat that we may ask a happy man (not William III.) to put up with pure inconveniences, and even make them part of his happiness. ...
— Tremendous Trifles • G. K. Chesterton

... suspicions. There was nothing strange in the presence of the chaplain. Sylvia had always liked the man, and an apology for his conduct had doubtless removed her anger. To make a mountain out of a molehill was the act of an idiot. It was natural that she should release Dawes—women were so tender-hearted. A few well-chosen, calmly-uttered platitudes anent the necessity for the treatment that, to those unaccustomed to the desperate wickedness of convicts, must appear ...
— For the Term of His Natural Life • Marcus Clarke

... too. I don't want to run away with you ... not because I don't love you ... I do love you, Paddy, very much ... but it's so absurd to run away and make a ... a mountain out of a molehill. We should be awfully miserable if we were to elope. We'd have to go to some horrid place where we shouldn't know anybody and there'd be nothing to do. Really, it's much pleasanter to go on as we are now, Paddy. You can come ...
— Changing Winds - A Novel • St. John G. Ervine

... which a molehill is like a cone, though a very rough one; and that the little heaps which the burrowing beetles make on the moor, or which the ant-lions in France make in the sand, are all something in the shape of a cone, with a hole like a crater in the middle. What the beetle and the ant-lion do on ...
— Madam How and Lady Why - or, First Lessons in Earth Lore for Children • Charles Kingsley

... Tom; and I will be, now! I tell you what, old chap, your sudden promotion has disagreed with you, and you are trying to manufacture a mountain out of a molehill. Those Greeks are not such fools to attack us unless they gained over the rest of the crew on their side; and you know that's impossible; for every Englishman forward now in the foc's'le I'd stake my life ...
— Picked up at Sea - The Gold Miners of Minturne Creek • J.C. Hutcheson

... "Another molehill," thought Desire. And, virtuously disregarding the instinct leaping in her heart, she turned the fascinating thing face downwards. Probably fate laughed then. For written large and in very black ink across the back was the admirably restrained autograph, ...
— The Window-Gazer • Isabel Ecclestone Mackay

... making a mountain out of a molehill," said a suave voice behind them, and, turning, Quin saw the somewhat perturbed face of Harold Phipps, "If she would listen to ...
— Quin • Alice Hegan Rice

... treeless, hedgeless German flats fly past; the straight-lopped poplars, the spread of tall green wheat, the blaze of rape-fields—the villages and towns, with two-towered German churches, over and over, and over again. Oh, for a hill, were it no bigger than a molehill! Oh, for ...
— Nancy - A Novel • Rhoda Broughton

... under which we are to shelter ourselves, and from which as it seems all authority proceeds, lies like a molehill or a tottering wall, on which there is not one gun-carriage or one piece of cannon in a suitable frame or on a good platform. From the first it has been declared that it should be repaired, laid in five angles, and put in royal condition. The commonalty's men have been addressed ...
— Narrative of New Netherland • Various

... coal-tar. Dig a hole in some quiet corner of your garden, pop your dumpling into it, and cover it well up with earth, treading it down firmly with your feet. Not many hours will elapse before you will see the ground swell like a molehill; an eruption will ensue, and you will be the happy possessor of a ...
— Wonders of Creation • Anonymous

... make a mountain out of a molehill," said Ruth, quietly. "If you don't like Beatrice Severn, you need not associate with her—not even if she is going to be in your grade at school. But I would not quarrel with my best friend about her. That's hardly ...
— The Corner House Girls at School • Grace Brooks Hill

... no sooner heard, than the whole of the little People came pouring from all sides into the Nut-field, which was set apart for such festivals, and was on this occasion decked out in the most beautiful manner. In the middle, upon a molehill prettily covered with small pebbles, stood the throne for the good King and his fair daughter; it was made of snail-shells and mussel-shells, and cushioned with feathers. A long alley of lilies-of-the-valley, ...
— The King of Root Valley - and his curious daughter • R. Reinick

... but I thought I was so strong, so proud: I undertook miracles. I soon found my pride was a molehill and my love a mountain. I could not hold out by day if I did not ease my breaking heart at night. How unfortunate! I kept my head under the bed-clothes, too; but you have such ears. I thought I would stifle my grief, or else perhaps you would be as wretched as I am: forgive ...
— Hard Cash • Charles Reade

... Stout, of Flugel & Stout. "When you are coming to compare Johnsonhurst mit Burgess Park it's already a molehill to a mountain." ...
— Elkan Lubliner, American • Montague Glass

... that there is now a definite prospect of welcoming again to England our veteran missionary, the Rev. Robert Moffat. He may be expected, with Mrs. Moffat, about the month of June. Mr. Moffat no longer enjoys his former robust health. In his last letter he writes: 'What to me was formerly a molehill is now a mountain, and we both have for some time past begun to feel some of the labour and sorrow so frequently experienced by those who have passed their three-score ...
— Robert Moffat - The Missionary Hero of Kuruman • David J. Deane

... an old mason residing about two miles off who had worked there, and who was, he rather thought, the very man who had told him of it. He would go off at once and fetch John Trowel and his tools, and they would very soon burrow into the molehill if one existed. ...
— Washed Ashore - The Tower of Stormount Bay • W.H.G. Kingston



Words linked to "Molehill" :   knoll, mound, hummock, hillock, hammock



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